THE IBIS. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. VI. APRIL 1866. 



XL — A Voice on Ornithology from Formosa. 

 By Robert Swinhoe, Her Majesty's Consul^ F.Z.S., &c. 



(Plate V.) 



I HAVE been very unfortunate with regard to my scientific 

 books. The two closing numbers of -"^ The Ibis' for 1864 

 went down with the mail-steamer in a typhoon ; and some 

 other works have since been carried off by pirates on the 

 capture of a schooner bound from Amoy to this port with the 

 mails. Thanks, however^ to the deity that presides over science, 

 the two first numbers of the New Series are at hand. Mr. 

 Blyth, I am pleased to see, is still hard at work. I have read 

 his " Identifications and Rectifications of Synonymy " (Ibis, 

 1865, pp. 27-50), and can corroborate most of what concerns 

 my sphere of experience. I should like, however, to say a few 

 words. 



Eurystomus orientalis, L. (p. 30), I take to be the summer 

 visitant of South China, and not E. australis, Sw. My spe- 

 cimens are with Mr. Tristram, and this question can very easily 

 be settled by any one who cares to take the trouble. Merops 

 philippinus I have also received from Swatow, in the Province of 

 Canton (see Ibis, 1865, p. 230). Lanius hardwickii, Vig., and 

 Nectarinia fiammaxillaris, Blyth, may occur in China, but I 

 have never had the good fortune to meet with them. " China," 

 however, is a broad term, comprising no small part of Asia. 



N.S. VOL. II. K 



